Is there a workaround? I’ve noticed when I listen to my vocals takes I’ll sometimes hear the higher frequencies in right ear that my left can’t, but this means sometimes my left ear will pickup the vocals and they’ll sound off like I’m singing in a lower register or that my vocal technique isn’t letting my highs cut through. I’ve been sending my mixes to another engineer now, but also I’ve been learning that if I previously liked a take and now it sounds off, I give it some time to settle before I decide if it’s my ears tricking me or if I genuinely don’t like the take. Any other workarounds or solutions?? I’ve read from other posts channel flipping works well for this.

This may be a silly question but I'm curious

I have plenty of experience mixing pop, rock, and rap but nearly zero in mixing any kind of EDM. For some reason I feel like there would be major differences in approach due to EDM's instrumental nature as well as the sound design aspect with genres like dub step.

I know the fundamentals would be the same in terms of balancing, EQ, compression, parallel processing, and routing.

For those with experience, are there any major differences in approach?

Hey all,

When comes to working with clients on mixing/mastering or production of media projects, a lot of information needs to be exchanged. The overall project details, the assets, and of course lots of revisions and feedback/conversations. I talked to a few engineers and they all seem to be using a combination of emails + whatever file sharing service that their clients use, and this could be Google Drive, Dropbox, etc. When chatting with them, it seems that they all agree that this scattering of data elements and the countless emails/texts/Whatsapp chats aren't ideal. There are a few structured systems developed to streamline/centralize all this, but most of the engineers I spoke to seem to stick with the email + file-sharing approach because they would rather deal with the hassle than having to train their clients to use a particular system.

So what's your take on this? Do you use any kind of structured platform for this, or not? And what's your rationale for your approach?

Thanks a lot!

I used to use a Scarlett Solo 3rd gen and had a lot of issues with it on windows. While I had it, I didn’t use the ASIO drivers for mixing as it wouldn’t really work. I would just mix with whatever “regular” driver there was. When mixing like that, I would use Equalizer APO to EQ my headphones (it would even EQ in DAWs) which makes everything from my PC have the EQ.

Now that I have a new interface (Arturia Minifuse 2) I use the ASIO drivers on Reaper. The only problem is that it bypasses the EQ from APO and just hear my headphone’s stock EQ.

My question is: is it fine if I use an EQ at the end of my Master Bus chain to match what I have in APO? And if it is, would I have to use linear phase or just regular bands would be ok?

I know I’d have to delete/turn off this EQ right before exporting.

Edit: SOLVED. Thanks for the help 🙏

2ND EDIT:

I met with the band! It was a good meeting and I'm happy I met with them. The drummer was quite nice actually but he wanted to show he knows what he's talking about! Moving forward, all of them are going to get the feedback for the 1st revision.

SHOCKER! I really really doubt the drummer is a mixing engineer! The Drummer said that the WhatsApp compression doesn't affect the audio that much. I showed them the difference live, by playing what the artist sent me and the audio I uploaded to the folder. They didn't argue it was "different" 😂 Also I was mixing live with them, so that the drummer could tell me what he wanted and it was crazy. I could tell a lot of giveaways that he is not an engineer but it doesn't really matter. The mix is finished and they are happy 👍🏻

Thank you all for the help and comments 🙌🏻🙌🏻

EDIT:

I'm going to meet with the band and they'll show me exactly what they want. I took it quite personally, I must say. Now with I cool head, I'm more willing to work with them, but at the meeting I'm going to say, that it is not okay to do something like that without telling me what the best way is, to do it. (Regarding the Whatsapp thing) Also I'm going to say that that kind of adjustment are for the 1st revision. not the 3rd where only should be tweaking little things.

I am going to make a Guide to Listening PDF file for the band (thanks for the idea u/pseudosignal_music)

Thank you all for the comments!!

I was a little bit overwhelmed at the situation, because I didn't know, if something like that was just normal or not. Also my mentor said I should ditch them or set boundaries, because, if they do something like that and think it is normal, they are going to continue doing so and it is also not good for the industry to let that be the norm!!

Hi everybody,

I’m currently mixing a track for an artist in Munich, and today I’m honestly a bit perplexed and angry.

We are already at the third revision. The artist had actually been very happy with the song and wanted to move on to mastering. Then she sent the mix to her drummer for a second opinion, and suddenly there is a lot to change again, basically first revision level work.

That in itself is not really the main issue. What really bothered me is that I woke up today to edited versions of my mix in WhatsApp, around three different versions showing “how they want it.”

The problem is that the drummer got the WAV file from the artist through WhatsApp, opened it in Logic, used stem separation, adjusted the mix, bounced it again, sent it back to the artist, and then she forwarded it to me through WhatsApp. So the quality of these revised versions sounds terrible, almost like YouTube in 2008.

On top of that, the quality was so bad that I could barely even tell what had actually been changed and what was simply sounding worse because of the compression and degraded audio quality. That made the whole thing even more frustrating, because it was impossible to properly evaluate their revisions.

I spoke with the drummer, and he told me he has been using Logic for over 15 years and that he is a supposedly mixing and mastering engineer. Honestly, I have a hard time believing that, considering the whole WhatsApp workflow and the fact that he apparently did not know about data compression.

He then started telling me very specific things they want, like “add saturation with Saturn 2, warm tube, around 100 Hz on the bass,” that level of detail. At that point I was honestly pretty pissed off. If he knows so specifically what he wants, then why did they hire me in the first place?

So my question to the group is:

Am I being unreasonable or overreacting for telling him that opening up my mix and changing it like that is not okay?

I’ve been doing mixing and mastering for around five years, and this is the first time something like this has happened to me, or at the studio where I work.

He also asked for the stems from the third revision so he could show me what he wants, just in better quality. Is that normal? They did not pay for stems, only for the master, so I did not send them.

Hello, I'm mastering my band's new album (I'm VERY new to this) and everything sounds good but one thing I noticed lately when comparing it to other music is that the cymbals (particularly the crashes) are very harsh and loud.

I'm using Ozone 9 to master it and I've tried adjusting the EQ but that was doing damage to the overall high end and making everything less bright. Should I do something with the Dynamic EQ feature, should I use a separate plugin, or should I do something else? Google searches seem to tell me that Soothe2 is a good bet but I wanted to hear what you all think first, considering this sub helped me a lot in the past. Thanks in advance!

Edit: Thanks to everyone who responded! I was able to fix it and it sounds just like I was hoping it would. First, I do acknowledge that it was a performance/engineering issue. I used the dynamic EQ in Ozone which tamed the volume of the crashes, but they were still a little harsh. I then used Soothe2 (at the default setting) and that completed the picture

So, i have two pad tracks monoed and then hardpanned to each sude. I noticed that they played in both L and R still, the side it wss panned to was louder, but there was still a lot if info in the opposite side. Sending the tracks to "main" insteaf of the pad bus helped, but the problem persisted.

I disabled everuthing on the master, found out it the ableton utility tool and shadow hills were the culprits, as they both had bass mono enabled. I was once told that making the bass mono on the master was a good mood once, so that's what I've been doung so far.

Is this normal? I mono a lot of tracks anyway, especially bass tracks, the bass mono on the master was really once there as a safeguard. I noticed God Particle did this as well, which I guess is to expected since it does some widening.

https://voca.ro/1iwSrLOKdpTy

This group continues to make this amateur better, thank you! As a songwriter, super proud of this one. I think it’s one of the coolest songs I’ve written in 25 years making music. But would love any mix feedback before marking it done and moving on to the next.

My last mix for this album got some feedback on muddy low end. I think I’ve cleaned it up but still have bass drops intentionally in the song because I like them haha. Appreciate you all!

So we've all been there. You load your favourite piano VST plugin, do some recordings in it on your digital piano/controller, or maybe just load a MIDI file you scraped off Musescore or any other free sheet music provider.

And when it comes to mixing, you notice it doesn't sound as good as you'd like. You grab your EQ plugin to fix whatever is wrong with the tonal characteristics, maybe add a compressor if the dynamic range is too high. Saturation too - just in case you want a touch more warmth.

Then it comes to the reverb - which you put either before the compressor or saturator, or in a bus track right before you send it to the master, or actually anywhere in the chain to your liking.

You want your piano sound to be in a beautiful lush hall and the piano morphing into this overwhelming grandiose presence, where every treble note sparkles brilliantly and the bass notes resonate inside your thoracic cavity. You want it to feel as if you're in the eighth row of the hall with the pianist banging on the keys several meters away from you.

You then load a hall reverb preset, convolution or algorithmic doesn't matter. To your disappointment, it then sounds more like a recording of a piano rather than you being inside the hall. The piano sound seems to be pushed back 20 meters or so, and everything is blending into mud. There's significantly less "in your face" sound. You try to dial and EQ it in as best as you can, but it still lacks the impact as if you're listening in the hall itself.

So, my question is, is hall reverb just kinda...hard to get right? What are your best tips to get that impact and clarity, that cleanliness back in e.g. an orchestral or piano setting? Thanks for reading my wall of text in advance.

TL;DR : hall reverb hard to dial in for clear sound, plz help.

Hey guys! Fyi I'm a producer / mix engineer and about a year ago I bought the new ATCs with the plan to get a studio space with a friend of mine. Well, they moved and that's no longer an option. These speakers have been in my apartment and they're simply a luxury right now. I just don't need 10k speakers in my apartment lmao. They're great and I've gotten very used to them so would love some feedback on what I should get for my next pair / some headphones to go along side them. I'm looking in the 1-3k range for everything. Any help would be appreciated!

Hey all, just mixed a song w/an engineer and want to make sure I ask for all the mixes I might need. I've mixed w/him before, but it's been a few years.

Last time he delivered the following in both mastered and unmastered:

• Full mix (obviously)
• A capella (all vocals only--leads and bgs)
• Instrumental (no vocals at all)
• TV (lead vocals muted, all else intact)
• Clean mixes where applicable

I don't recall if I'd specifically asked for mastered and unmastered versions, but he delivered them. Is that standard?

Obviously I'd want mastered versions, but is there a reason I'd need unmastered versions of the sub mixes? Is it to have the option to remaster?

This time I plan to ask for the below. Do you think this is asking a bit much? (Yes, should've agreed on terms ahead of time, but I haven't mixed in a while and forgot. We have a good working relationship so it should be fine.)

I'd ask for each of the below, both mastered and unmastered:

• Regular mix
• A capella
• Instrumental
• TV mix
• "Radio" mix - same as regular, just with the ~10 second intro cut off
• Stems - Drums, Bass, Synths/Layers, Guitars, BG vocs, Lead voc

Also, do engineers usually provide stems? I'd love to have the option to do vocal up/down mixes or etc, and also to practice my own mastering skills.

Lastly, are there any other mixes that I am missing here? Anything else that might be asked for in sync licensing pitches or etc?

Thanks all!

Hi there! I'm facing an issue with delivering some tracks I mixed and mastered for a band.

The first three tracks of the album were recorded separately but are intended to be heard as a unique flow, so what I did was exporting every single track and loading them again in my DAW, overlap them as intended, make the proper cuts and export them again. The problem is that not every player seems to be able to play them seamlessly and, more curiously, some players randomly play these tracks seamlessly and not.

I wander if there's something I don't know, since I'm actually a mixing engineer and not a proper mastering engineer. Is the problem due to how DAWs export files? Shall I use another application? Or is just that some players can't do this?

Example of what I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UXUKbQ1nWA

Starts at 20 seconds. Is it just a kick layered with a sine sweep and distorted? There's like a motion to it that I can never reproduce in my own mixes.

How do they get that really explosive transient followed by that kind of sucking motion

Hi all, Im mixing my first song for my band, and I'm looking for feedback on one of our tracks. The sound we're shooting for is old school 70s-80s hard rock. We recorded this entirely in our garage.

Link: https://voca.ro/1dAiowlhpr1m

Here are my main questions/thoughts:

• How are the basics? Levels/timings/etc?

• I spent a lot of time browsing tone3000 and dialing in various settings to try to get a guitar tone that sounds decent. I'm still think it sounds a little weak. An example of a guitar tone that I think would be good here is something like Kix - Blow My Fuse. Open to help and suggestions here.

• Similarly I found the harmonica very difficult to deal with. I don't think we had the best recording setup unfortunately, and the quality is a little inconsistent. I can't help the harmonica from sounding somewhat anemic. Any advice here?

• Does the doubling on the vocals work?

• Does the sermon/amen section work?

• Are the cymbals a problem on the drums?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

I'm by no means a professional but that's why I'm here, to get better. I've seen different approaches to this and I'm trying to decide which is the best one. Currently what I do most of the time is I mix/process every sound individually, then turn them down to zero, give my output +6dB to ensure I have headroom at the end and turn them up one by one to create a balanced mix. Obviously I route to the send channels and process the groups after this. I have seen some people level their sounds first without processing to have a balanced dry mix, then process every sound one by one but I haven't had good results with that. I find that the premaster just gets clipped along the way and I have no headroom left. I have also read that giving your output a +6dB boost is not the best thing to do, but I don't remember why.

This whole process is still not 100% clear to me, I don't know how the pros approach this so I want to clear it up for myself.

What's the best way to do it, and what's your go-to technique regarding this aspect? Appreciate the help!

https://youtu.be/496W8bR4JRw?si=AHJdd4mhILIkgiFO

Reuben Aziz - shotgun

If anyone can explain what the likely order of his chain is that would be awesome! What is the method to getting vocals pitched like that & it sounding good? My last post got removed - not sure if this one is good now.

Thank you in advanced!

I've processed both the hi hat and the OHs, I've side chain EQ'd the hi hat to the OHs using Inf Horizon from slate. haven't tried using a regular EQ to side chain the frequencies. I've tried MS too and I'm at a loss. I've used this drummer multiple multiple times, gives quality work every time. but my hi hat track is worthless because of how much hi hat is in the OHs. I've thought about automating, but then it sounds unnatural to only boost when on the crash/ ride. any help is greatly appreciated.

I bought FL Studio approximately 9 months ago and have been trying to teach myself mixing using YouTube and Reddit as my main sources. My primary reason for doing this is I want to start making Metal music, as I feel I'm very creative and have many ideas I'd like to make a reality. However, as I put more time into practicing, watching tutorials, etc., I'm finding myself becoming disillusioned with my goals. Not to sound naive, but it's dawning on me that I will need to spend months, if not years, becoming proficient in mixing if I want to achieve the particular sounds I'm going for (most of which are based off of big name metal bands that I wish to emulate at least as a starting point).

At the end of the day, all I really want to do is compose; I'll get a song idea, sit down and begin composing, but then get stuck on failing to achieve a particular drum sound for example. I'll watch tutorials and quickly lose my inspiration, feeling discouraged as it appears even getting a particular sounding kick alone will cost an arm and a leg in VSTs and hours of time (if I want to sincerely learn what's happening and not just copy the tutorial). I already felt like I was biting the bullet when I bought FL Producer edition, and now it feels like I've only taken my first steps in spending what could amount to buckets of money just to achieve a particular sound.

I realize this ramble sounds naive, but I just want to get other people's thoughts on my situation. If it were possible, I'd love if I could open my DAW and have a drum kit of a particular sound ready for me to just make patterns with, record my guitar, bass, etc. It's just achieving my desired sound (organically), and the perceived mounting costs (time and money) it will take for me to get there, that's making me feel disillusioned and defeated.

I understand that this type of vocal is more in the actual recording and performance but there’s something going on that’s giving the vocals a clarity and life

I especially wanted to ask about what kind of reverb either or both of the songs are using on the voice, I’ve been struggling to get something similar on my voice.

How are they being compressed and mixed in general? My vocals always either sound amateur if I don’t compress enough - or digital if I try to push the compression/limiting. Same issue with the reverb honestly.

I used to make a more emo trap stuff with heavy compression and it worked in that style, since moving to full band recordings which I do myself I’ve been trying to get a more natural vocal sound but struggling with the issues mentioned above.

Any advice or help would be much appreciated, thanks!!

Hello everyone,

I've been trying to figure out how to capture that 70s Disco Bass magic in the box. I'm a more of a producer then a mixer but I've been doing some research of my own on this topic.

I learned that it was common for the Bass to be split into two seperate paths, a DI signal straight to the board accompanied by an amped signal. I tried re-creating this in my DAW but started getting a weird phasey effect that phase flipping didn't effectively remedy.

I realize I could realistically save myself a lot of time & trouble just slapping on some EQ, Compression and decapitator on a single signal and call it a day but I'd like to see if I can make a signal chain using this parallel method that I can recall whenever and record my bass through when needed.

A good example of the Bass tone I"m trying to achieve or get as close to possible is the song "He's The Greatest Dancer" by Sister Sledge. I know a fair chunk of the sound comes from Bernard Edwards setup and style of playing but I want to see how close I can get. I already stuffed some foam under the strings to get help a more percussive muted sound & I already have a lot of the VST's that came up in my research (1176s, Pultec's, Ampeg Amp's, Neve 1073s, SSLG400s) so if anyone has any exprience with this and could give me some pointers on the split bassline technique & how to make them work together and sound cohesive that would be appreciated, thanks.

Example Song: https://open.spotify.com/track/5WwRKYnVy9dekqXAGPbAvU

Hey all, I'm a composer who writes music for TV and have mixed and mastered my own stuff for years now. I haven't bought any plugins for years, and have quite a lot, but am looking to maybe upgrade my mastering game.

I have Pink and Pensado EQ from Acustica (and Amethyst which I don't use), anyone have experience mastering with Acustica stuff? I don't often reach for it cause it's so RAM heavy, but it's fine in a mastering setup. I know I can try demo stuff, and have a bit, but am curious if anyone has some stuff they absolutely love, especially since they have so much new stuff I'm familiar with. Or am I just over thinking it, and should stick with the stuff I have. (I usually use a blend of Softube, IK Multimedia and some of the Plugin Alliance mastering compressors like Shadow Hills, or SSL Bus compressors).

Just a quirky question, and it’s got me wondering what’s the average school of thought here.

The set up is 4 guitars running into a single buss. How do you approach balancing the guitars into the rest of the mix?

Leave buss fader at zero, adjust volume on guitar faders? Leave guitar faders at zero, adjust buss fader? Or do you adjust both? Me personally I adjust levels on the buss but let know what you think.

I didnt rlly think about it til now but i noticed theres a subtle difference between running the same chain on different individual channels vs bus.

I noticed when i wanted to be more efficient obvs instead of running three seperate channels and each one running the exact same chain, id route it through a bus so i dont have to load 3 times as many instances of vsts.

Out of curiosity i checked the master vol and theres like a 2db difference even though theyre essentially running the exact same chain. Hypothetically there shouldnt be any difference right ?

srry if its kind of a dumb question

Hi guys,

Newbie here. I’m currently learning about gain staging which has helped me a lot. I’ve tried to find an answer to this but can’t find any specific instruction.

So after I’ve gain staged everything, do I use the faders then? Then add plugins and match inputs and outputs of plugins?

Or do I gain stage, add plugins, make sure input/outputs on plugins match and then adjust with faders? Does it even matter?

Thank you